18 again

Posted 10 Nov 2009 at 05:25 PM by Dan Loney

Quote:

His season with the Result (highlight to reveal): Galaxy has been similar to Alex Rodriguez’s with the Yankees — short on drama and long on performance.

Here's a fun game for you. Who is Jere Longman referring to in this sentence? I'd provide a link to Longman's New York Times article, but the answer is given in the link. Also whited out the club name, but if you're stuck, you can at least give that hint.

Another hint - it's nice to see that the New York Times still wakes up every morning and says to itself, "How can we insult Dan's intelligence today?"

Speaking of Mainstream Media - so, Ian Plenderleith on When Saturday Comes interprets the new Washington Freedom ad as a shot at DC United, Kevin Payne, and MLS. Not so, says WPS. Instead, it was a shot at a bigger target - Dan Snyder, the NFL, and the Washington Racist Nicknames.

Quote:

Originally Posted by George Perry, SVP, Washington Freedom

DC United is a very important partner of the Freedom and we have nothing but the utmost respect for Kevin Payne, the organization and MLS. We strive to be as successful as they are in all aspects of their business.

Our primary objective was simply to launch our new Marketing Campaign, “Freedom Is”. Given all of the recent negative publicity, media coverage and sports talk chatter surrounding the Redskins and the frustrations their fans are feeling about the product on and off the field, we seized on this as an opportunity to make the point that our fans are extremely important to us and that we will encourage their enthusiastic support of the team.

The ad in question is here. I'm on the other side of the continent, but from here it looks like much more of a shot at Snyder than Payne and MLS.

But does that invalidate Plenderleith's point, that MLS has no business restricting access to those who are critical? We're not discussing whether they can - of course, they have the right to. The issue is whether they should.

I think you pretty much have to go case by case. I won't embarrass the leagues and teams that have given me a press pass, but the Galaxy never have, and the USSF has stopped. I interpret that as "Ah, I see you are familiar with my work." I could also interpret it as the Galaxy and USSF saying, "You have a readership volume roughly equivalent to opening the window and shouting," which, while damaging to my fragile ego, is an equally valid reason to make me pay to get into games.

This could be another callback to Jamie Trecker, who has the readership to warrant a press pass, at least. I don't know if MLS also bars Trecker, but if they do...he's Jamie Trecker. He's perfectly capable of lambasting American soccer from a paid seat, or his couch.

Anyway, this was Ian's main point:

Quote:

MLS needs to grow up and engage its critics by talking about radical, positive, long-term plans to escape the tactical rut that’s come with parity, a league obsessed with central control and a season format where poor, defensive and inconsistent teams can end up being crowned as champions.

Well...geez. I think it varies team to team. AEG is the Kremlin, sure, and the Rapids are following that example. The Fire aren't nearly as open as they were in the Peter Wilt days, and the various New York ownerships have been alienating their fanbase since day one.

But I don't think you can say that about Seattle, or Houston, or San Jose, or even Toronto. Certainly not getting the vibe that Philadelphia and Portland are going to be run like the Stasi. Fine, all those teams are still in the honeymoon phase.

There is still a Supporters Summit, the Commissioner still addresses it. And there's a difference between engaging critics, and giving in to them. Parity is a painful example, I suppose, but you can't say that MLS hasn't answered the question. They like parity, they like playoffs, the team with the best record isn't always the champion, and that simply is not an issue in North American sports, including North American soccer. (Note the correct use of "North American.")

While scoring is down in MLS this year, that's almost singlehandedly down to the Galaxy hiring professional athletes to play defense. SOMEWHAT less facetiously, Evan writing to Bruce at Du Nord should have shot down any criticism along this line weeks ago, by actually looking up stats at RSSSF:

Quote:

You said that MLS 2009 had 2.54 goals per game and wanted to compare that to other leagues. Here:
English Premier League 2008-2009: 2.48
Italian Serie A 2008-2009: 2.60
Greek Super League 2008-2009: 2.16
Australian A-League 2008-2009: 2.96
Japanese J-League 2008: 2.56
MLS is towards the middle and is in between two of the top leagues in the world, EPL and Serie A.

So the criticism of MLS seems once again to go back to it not being as popular as the Premiership. Gotta think they've noticed, but who knows, maybe not?

_________

Line break for no reason. So I'm reading a thread about newspaper comics at a comedy website, and someone posts a link to this handy guide for what The Youth of Today Believe. Now, some of you out there may be the Youth of Today, but I happen to be older than God's grandfather, so some of these hit me as really harbingers of the Generation Gap.

There are a couple of items missing from that list, as far as we are concerned. "The United States has always qualified for the World Cup" is the top of the list, followed by "There has always been a Women's World Cup" and "Diego Maradona has always had drug problems." But while those are jarring now, imagine what a similar list will look like in five years, when we will be faced with adults who have never known a time without Major League Soccer.

Just struck me as interesting, is all.

Posted in Crap that has nothing to do with anything

Views 1546 Comments 14

« MLS Horror Playoff Show Main Putting my finger on "Soccernomics" »

Comments

	It's pretty clear that nothing MLS does will ever make it a good league in some people's eyes. I mean, look at Spain's La Liga. It does everything imaginable to try to get recognition as being at least equal, or close to, the Premiership, and Evan still thinks Serie A is better.
	Posted 10 Nov 2009 at 05:47 PM by evangel

	I was struck listening to the "hip, edgy" music they were playing during pregame warmups for the ACC Women's Final that the song playing at the moment was older than any of the players.
	Posted 10 Nov 2009 at 06:11 PM by AndyMead

	"How can you kids listen to that Taylor Swift crap? Flipper, GG Allin, GWAR, Negativland...that's REAL music! Kids these days...." Actually, yeah, from what I can tell, music today IS the music of ten or twenty years ago. That's...not good, kids. Try a little harder to piss us off.
	Posted 10 Nov 2009 at 06:26 PM by Dan Loney

	Dang... my daughter is class of 2013...
	Posted 10 Nov 2009 at 06:36 PM by Ghosting

	When you say that Jamie Trecker is Quote: perfectly capable of lambasting American soccer from a paid seat, or his couch is "lambasting American soccer" code for being an idiot and being consistently wrong about everything? Do people still read his articles and if so which people?
	Posted 10 Nov 2009 at 06:38 PM by SankaCofie

	Well, sad thing is people can be lead to believe just about anything. Some think Reagan was a great president, sheeesh.
	Posted 10 Nov 2009 at 07:33 PM by gibroni

	Quote: Originally Posted by SankaCofie When you say that Jamie Trecker is is "lambasting American soccer" code for being an idiot and being consistently wrong about everything? Do people still read his articles and if so which people? Controversy drives ratings, Limbaugh stands on a chair and says Fort Hood is Obama's fault, people tune in because its absurd.
	Posted 10 Nov 2009 at 07:57 PM by njndirish

	Quote: Originally Posted by gibroni Some think Reagan was a great president, sheeesh. Don't pull a muscle forcing in a completely pointless and unnecessary political referrence. Maybe after the MLS Cup you can loop in a Goldwater reference.
	Posted 10 Nov 2009 at 09:40 PM by GFame7

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan Loney

"How can you kids listen to that Taylor Swift crap? Flipper, GG Allin, GWAR, Negativland...that's REAL music! Kids these days...."

Actually, yeah, from what I can tell, music today IS the music of ten or twenty years ago. That's...not good, kids. Try a little harder to piss us off.

It's generally the music of 1987, except with more Auto-Tune.

Dear Black Eyed Peas,
Y'all sound Nineteen Eighty-Eight,
Fergie's Nineteen Eighty-late.

Posted 10 Nov 2009 at 09:48 PM by Stan Collins Stan Collins is online now

	I wonder how 'open' the Washington WPS teams would be to continuous comments about so many women's games being totally unwatchable? Free Elizabeth Lambert!
	Posted 10 Nov 2009 at 11:04 PM by Beakmon FC

Trackbacks

No other blogs currently reference this blog entry

Trackback Link

Archive
< February 2010
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	1	2	3	4	5	6

BigSoccer Message

Cancel Changes